envelopeA+D was one of 6 Northern California firms invited to participate in a design competition for a rooftop sculpture garden at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

The new rooftop sculpture garden is a seamless extension of the museum’s art promenade. The fifth floor gallery opens and unfolds onto the rooftop of the adjacent parking garage. The new ground plane and surrounding walls of the sculpture garden externalize the white walls and open exhibition spaces of the museum. Large zones of flexible display, where art is the organizing principle, set the viewing context.

The space of the fifth floor gallery projects into the new sculpture garden, both expanding the existing exhibition space and creating a new interior/exterior space. Defined by a cantilevered glass clad roof volume, this new flexible exhibition space exists at the crossing between gallery and sculpture garden. Sliding glass walls and solid panels provide environmental controls and variable conditions for the display of art.

The ground plane of the sculpture garden is lifted along its northern edge, creating an elevated terrace that heightens one’s awareness of the city. A reflecting pool borders the entire width of this lifted plane, diminishing barriers between the viewer and the city. In this space of heightened perception, visitors enjoy the physicality of the aesthetic experience.